Gongol.com Archives: December 2014
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![Humor and Good News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/haha.png)
If your charity isn't of the "teach a man to fish" variety, it's probably misplaced
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
He's not right about everything (who is?), but he has some important things to say
![Weather and Disasters](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/wx.png)
As we enter the winter of 2014, it's worth noting that 2013 ended up "normal", on average, but was made up of a lot of extremes
![Water News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/water.png)
![The United States of America](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/usa.png)
The Ohio Senator wants to return to the Senate. Nothing wrong with that; he's a generally good influence on Republican politics.
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
It's not clear from where the attack came (though North Korea is on the list of suspects)
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
Renovations are long overdue -- the structure itself is in dire need of care. But the plans included a few too many new signs for comfort, so it's good to hear that they're scaling back.
![Broadcasting](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/broadcast.png)
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
![The United States of America](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/usa.png)
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
Ashton Carter, the President's nominee for Secretary of Defense, apparently didn't have his own Twitter account prior to his name making it to the forefront of the news. And that let an impostor take over. No real harm comes of it for now, because the hoax was only mild. But it's a silly oversight for a high-profile official in the 21st Century. If something you own and control doesn't come up as the very first thing when you run a search for your own name (on Google or another search engine), then you have work to do.
![Broadcasting](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/broadcast.png)
(Video) Brian Williams can be quite funny, and brings a highly relatable personality to television news. But when things get rough, it's Scott Pelley you really want at the anchor desk. CBS's front man is all business, all the time.
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
At a time when the State Department has been showing less competence than usual (over situations like Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, and Russia, to name a few)
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
Secretary of State Kerry says it's going to take years to fight the Al Qaeda splinter group that's taken territory in Syria and Iraq
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
And their security advice, while a little clunky, isn't bad for civilians to follow
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
It will not be enough to defeat ISIS/ISIL/QSIL/Al Qaeda in a conventional martial sense. The ideology must also be driven into the ground, such that nobody ever perceives it as a viable one again.
![Health](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/health.png)
![Aviation News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/fly.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![Humor and Good News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/haha.png)
Arby's finds a very funny way of fixing an oversight in their deal with Pepsi
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
Condoleezza Rice on the need for America to think about national security, even if we're exhausted of the subject.
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
The latest to spread like wildfire is the misinformed notion that you can claim exclusive copyright to anything you post on Facebook. You cannot. Their terms explicitly give Facebook the right to use what you post however they like, and to sell it to anyone they choose.
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
The real value of the company simply cannot equal its current price, nor anything close to it
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
What they tell soldiers, sailors, and airmen to do isn't bad advice for civilians either
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
There are a lot of theoretical and philosophical reasons to advocate different types of economic outcomes, but the long and short of the matter is that market forces are natural forces, like the tides. We can adapt to them and in some cases direct them in limited ways, but to pretend as though they won't prevail in the long run is to pretend that we're much more powerful than we really are.
![Broadcasting](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/broadcast.png)
![Science and Technology](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/sci.png)
![Aviation News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/fly.png)
Of course, China had a role in putting it there. So much for the oft-repeated canard about long-term thinking.
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
We'll miss it when it's gone. This is a bonanza and should be recognized for what it is.
![Aviation News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/fly.png)
They're touting new airplanes and power outlets at every seat. But good luck: The air-travel business is heavily commoditized and tends to stay that way.
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
It may well be that kids need to learn to overcome challenges more than anything else
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
His opinion serves to reinforce the observation that the entire world is looking to the US as the best choice for investment right now. Much of the rest of the world is just too unstable or too uncertain to merit heavy bets.
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
A likely shot across the bow aimed at Google
![Broadcasting](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/broadcast.png)
(Video) Not when she finds out what some people do in their free time. All giggles aside, it doesn't matter what people were doing at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare -- a deliberate leak of chlorine gas is a very serious and troubling event.
![Broadcasting](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/broadcast.png)
(Video) His appearance on the "Colbert Report" may be chuckle-worthy, but it certainly seems like the place he's been most comfortable in a long time
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
A Harvard law professor takes his mission in life a little too seriously and threatens all kinds of legal nonsense over a $4 overcharge
![Socialism Doesn't Work](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/commies.png)
The government is kicking them out and rolling on with a less-than-democratic process for picking an executive in 2017
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
So say the Federal prosecutors involved
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
Ford has transitioned to an all-aluminum body on the F-150, and that's changing the way they're running the factory.
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![Broadcasting](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/broadcast.png)
The problem is that we want to be entertained by Brian Williams slow-jamming the news, but deep down we know we want Scott Pelley to do the heavy lifting of real, meaningful television journalism. And Scott Pelley is just not cut out to be a television character...so building a clever drama around a character with his nose for news isn't going to produce a naturally engaging product.
![Iowa](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/iowa.png)
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
It's not unprecedentedly friendly. Meanwhile, the White House insists that there is no plan to send ground troops back to Iraq. While that may be superficially satisfying, it's probably not a great idea to telegraph to our enemies what we just won't do.
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
It's been a whole lot of pain on paper this week. There's speculation that world oil demand will be down in 2015, and that has people worried that the global economy may be headed for trouble.
![Iowa](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/iowa.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
They don't expect to change voters' minds...they want to manipulate the spin. Not a huge surprise.
![Broadcasting](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/broadcast.png)
Live from 4pm to 6pm CT on WHO Radio
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
She lives in the UK, and inciting terrorism -- even if she's trying to incite it in Syria -- is against the law there
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
An interesting move; Yahoo hasn't really been a meaningful independent player in search for some time. But Firefox, which is trying a sort of brand-reboot after having given up quite a lot of ground to the Google Chrome browser, is now in a five-year agreement with Yahoo to provide Yahoo as the default search engine (while still listing others). Yahoo, meanwhile, is reciprocating by encouraging users of its properties to "upgrade" to Firefox.
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
A smart adaptation to new uses of old technology. There's nothing new about GIFs, but people are using them in lots of social-media applications that otherwise don't allow for easy video consumption.
![Science and Technology](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/sci.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![Health](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/health.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
Rumor has it the company doesn't want to have to follow a law that requires them to store data about Russian users on Russian-based computers
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![Iowa](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/iowa.png)
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
And he largely brought it upon himself
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
There's really no way to measure the kind of cowardice it takes to kill kids who are simply trying to go to school. Any political system, group, or philosophy that thinks schoolchildren -- kids simply learning to read and write and think for themselves -- isn't worthy of the 21st Century and should be wiped from the face of the earth.
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
Much of it is really good (schedule relentlessly, plan ahead, focus on your high-value work). Some of it is junk (to-do lists are valuable, no matter what the author says -- it's simply up to the individual to use them in the way that motivates them most effectively). Productivity advice is so heavily dependent upon personality factors that these kinds of prescriptive pieces have to be taken with a grain of salt.
![Humor and Good News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/haha.png)
![Broadcasting](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/broadcast.png)
![Humor and Good News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/haha.png)
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
Plummeting oil prices can't be helping
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
They're now adopting "patience" as a policy for raising interest rates
![Socialism Doesn't Work](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/commies.png)
Sony cancelled the release after Carmike, AMC, Cinemark, and Regal said they wouldn't show it.
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
Some may turn to crypto-currency
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
And they're so doing with the new BlackBerry Classic
![Health](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/health.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
President Obama's response: "We will respond proportionately and in a space, time and manner that we choose."
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
Says the former head of the European Central Bank
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
You can't fight an evil until you name it
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
Rahm Emanuel's son was robbed near home by two male attackers using a chokehold and their fists. If the mayor's own son isn't safe to walk down the street, who is?
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
![Broadcasting](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/broadcast.png)
But it looks like he'll be back on the air soon...just not on the "Late Late Show". Television will be worse off without him in the meantime.
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![Broadcasting](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/broadcast.png)
![Broadcasting](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/broadcast.png)
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
Assistant coaches at the University of Iowa are getting pay increases that far outstrip the change in the cost of living
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
It's going to be a floating liquified natural gas processing plant for Shell, and it's massive
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
Or at least so they say. That's bad news for higher-cost oil producers (read: everybody else), but especially for countries that depend heavily upon oil profits, like Russia and Iran.
![Health](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/health.png)
It may serve to occupy the brain during routine tasks so you don't over-think things and psych yourself out
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
The terrorist group there is hardening into a state, and a ghastly one
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
The result? More rear-end crashes. Still no evidence to be shown that red-light cameras are really about safety; they're all about the ticket revenues.
![Iowa](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/iowa.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![Health](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/health.png)
(Video) Some of the things that are so easily taken for granted in rich countries make us less capable of recognizing simple steps that can be taken to improve the dignity and quality of life for people living in poor countries -- like providing access to better ways of cooking food. It's a much more powerful idea than one might think.
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
We need to understand what causes the escalations and how to achieve de-escalation whenever possible
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
But personal saving went down -- now to 4.4% of disposable personal income
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
There are many layers on which the problem of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh has to be addressed: (1) True believers, (2) soft sympathizers, (3) indifferent bystanders, (4) weak-minded followers, and (5) unwilling hostages and victims -- just to name a few
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
It's not something they're used to getting -- but a security vulnerability in the OS X had to be fixed
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
It was company-wide and lasted for a while. It's a good example why people with mission-critical e-mail needs should have a dedicated domain name with e-mail routing that sends messages to at least two different destinations (like an ISP e-mail service and Gmail).
![Health](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/health.png)
![Iowa](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/iowa.png)
But it's steadily low growth -- much lower than fast-growing states. Still, that's better than shrinkage. Minnesota added more people.
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
Whoever they are and whatever their intentions, expect to see a meaningful increase in online mischief and criminality as Russia's economy shrinks
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
A journalist recaps her encounters with -- and analysis of -- terrorist sympathizers who are using Western communication tools like Twitter to promote a very un-Western war
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
And that's probably going to keep on driving growth in the Chinese stock market, even if real growth turns out to be in shorter supply than before
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
The optimal place for driving-for-fares is somewhere on the continuum between Uber's unregulated but feedback-driven system and the heavily-regulated (but not necessarily for the benefit of public health and safety) taxi system. It's probably a lot closer to the Uber end of that spectrum.
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
Because Facebook "likes" don't really distinguish between things people actually like and the general-purpose use of the "like" simply to express solidarity, support, or acknowledgment, there are lots of people getting automated looks at their past year that try to frame sad moments as though they are celebratory. There's a long way to go before these kinds of errors are properly avoided.
![Socialism Doesn't Work](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/commies.png)
The North Korean propaganda agency is in a tizzy over "The Interview"
![The American Way](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/$.png)
Incentives for those who will work. A safety net for those who can't. A fair but firm push for those who won't.
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
They're trying to prop up the ruble -- exactly as predicted -- and it reflects the country's intentions to win friends (or at least loyal supplicants) on the world stage
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
There's no doubt that mental wellness has a contagious component. Less stigma, more realistic approaches to helping people.
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
And the advertising side of the business needs to know what the product they're selling is really out to do
![Broadcasting](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/broadcast.png)
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
Washington Post analysis: Too many new duties after 9/11, getting shuffled into a new DHS bureaucracy, and -- in no small measure -- a loss of experienced workers and a huge degree of distrust of management by the rank-and-file
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
War can't be examined in isolation from economics. Russia may be on track to burn through its fiscal reserves in a matter of just a couple of years. What happens next is probably not going to be pretty.
![Health](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/health.png)
That's scary. What's worse is the thought that people are choosing to exempt themselves and their children from immunization programs, which only opens the door further to the risk of the disease among the population as a whole. The awful movement that steers people away from vaccines is only weakening the immunity of the human species at large. We clearly have enough to worry about with the natural evolution of our viral enemies without some of our fellow people turning into traitors against us all.
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
A crowded Chicagoland mall was evacuated and closed after a fight broke out in the food court. Good people need to know how to protect themselves and de-escalate situations with authority.
![Science and Technology](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/sci.png)
A British engineering professor bemoans the fact that young people generally don't know how to fix their gadgets, but is it really a bad thing that the technology itself improves so quickly that there's little incentive to keep up with the details?
![Broadcasting](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/broadcast.png)
Airing live at 9 pm Central; streaming at whoradio.com/listen
![Socialism Doesn't Work](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/commies.png)
Because nothing is worse for an authoritarian government than people who can think for themselves and exchange those thoughts with others in relative privacy and freedom. Let's not forget that mundane-seeming technologies like the fax machine helped undermine the Soviet Union.
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
![Threats and Hazards](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/threats.png)
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
That's a first
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
China's labor costs have risen enough to meaningfully diminish the country's competitive advantage. The boom didn't really last long by historical standards.
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
You might think that a quick glance at the global and national data alone might have suggested that not everything we talk about on Facebook is stuff we'd like to relive...but perhaps these things do not occur to the wunderkinds. And, to be quite honest, the apology as shared with the Washington Post was actually a bit tone-deaf in itself.
![Computers and the Internet](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/comp.png)
So says Yahoo analytics subsidiary Flurry, which says "Apple accounted for 51% of the new device activations" right around Christmas.
![News](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/news.png)
The hilarious part: Most of their concerns have to do with political uncertainty, and whether the government and public agencies involved will actually supply the things they want for the library to go through. This, from a group planning a library to honor a Presidential administration that has shown a remarkable affinity for capricious initiation and execution of rules to advance its own political agenda, with great disregard for the consequences to the people who have to live by those rules and laws.
![Science and Technology](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/sci.png)
There are lots of moving parts to the system -- and it appears that they aren't being very well coordinated. Germans are as a result paying a very high price for electricity without a mountain of attending benefits.
![The United States of America](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/usa.png)
Franklin designed a penny with the image of a sundial and the word "Fugio" (Latin for "I fly"...thus suggesting "Time flies"), and a slogan saying "Mind your business". It's entirely possible -- maybe even likely -- that he intended for the ambiguity of that particular phrasing. "Mind your business" certainly literally means "Attend to your work", but it also can be another way to say "Mind your (own) business". How delightfully American.
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
Bloomberg reports that investment inflows are dropped by 94% from 2013 into 2014. To the contrarian investor, it's certainly a signal worth investigating.
![Health](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/health.png)
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
Distractions from noise alone probably reduce quite a lot of any gains to be had from "easier collaboration"
![Business and Finance](http://gongol.com/assets/icons/2005icons/biz.png)
Some will be right, many will be very wrong. Most valuable as an exercise in considering some of the outside circumstances that could mess with the status quo in the year ahead.